Games for Art Class to Introduce New Works of Art

I may be biased as an art teacher, but I think art is pretty dang fun! However, our students may not always have that perception. To keep students engaged and interested in art history or artists themselves, sometimes you have to use games for art class. It’s challenging to find quality games for art class that goes beyond simply playing - but that actually introduce students to key concepts.

To solve this problem, I created a game for art called the Flowers in Art Freebie. This is a memory game where students match together portraits of flowers by different, lesser-known artists.

Here are a few ideas for using this Flowers in Art Freebie game in your classroom -

#1 Matching

Have students shuffle the cards and lay them face down in a grid-like fashion. Players will take turns flipping over the cards to reveal the images. If the images match, the player keeps the pair of cards and takes another turn. If they don’t match, they turn the cards back over and leave them in the original position. When all the cards have been matched, the game is complete. The willing student is the one with the most matching cards. This is a fun game for art class that can introduce students to different types of art and new artists.

#2 Roll the Dice

This game for art class helps students review the elements of art. To play, students will use the same rules as the matching game and start by turning over cards and identifying matching pairs. However, if a student finds a matching pair, they must roll the dice and describe an element of art from the image on their card. Here are some example dice rules to use -

roll 1 - tell about line

roll 2- tell about color

roll 3- tell about shape

roll 4 - tell about form

roll 5- tell about texture

roll 6- tell about space

#3 Card Games

Another fun way to play is with an old school game like  “Go Fish” or “Old Maid”. 

For “Go Fish”, players will ask another student if they have a specific card type in their hand. If the player doesn’t, they say “Go Fish”. If the player does, they must put the card down. A player loses when all their cards are gone.

For “Old Maid”, players will draw a hand of cards. When it is a player's turn, they will draw a card from the hand of the person to their left. If they find a match, they can remove both cards from their hand. If not, they add the card to their hand. One person starts with the old maid. The old maid cannot be matched with any card, and the last player with the old maid loses!

#4 Scavenger Hunt

Hide the cards around the room and send students on an adventure to find them. You can set a timer to see how quickly students can find all the pairs and then challenge them to break their record time. This can make for a really fun and collaborative game for art class.

If you want to extend the Flowers in Art Freebie, try the Mono-Printing Flowers Art Lesson. This lesson is perfect for grades 3-5 and will engage students in critical thinking skills. Students will study Albrecht Durer and create a piece of art using the monoprint technique.

I’m Amanda, and I align standards and integrate content to help teachers meet the needs of the Whole Child in art class! I have yet to find a standard that I couldn’t teach through art, and I want to share it all with you.

Not sure where to start with bringing art and content together? This freebie guide is packed with 25 ideas to align your art lessons with math and ELA standards. Your students will be crafting art and practicing algebraic thinking. Win-win!

I want all students to feel successful in the art room, so I created a standards-based Daffodil Collage lesson to do just that! The lesson includes an artist study, student reflection, and more, so push your artists to their full potential.

Follow along on my Instagram page for more tips on teaching the Whole Child in the art room!

Connecting art and content together doesn’t have to be mind-boggling. I’ve made it simple with 25 math and ELA art lesson starters - for free! Plus, I included 15 worksheets for students to reflect on their art-making journey.